


Calling

by championofnone



Series: tumblr prompts [7]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-02 03:17:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4043809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/championofnone/pseuds/championofnone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one can run from the Calling for forever, not even the Hero of Ferelden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calling

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "It wasn't supposed to happen like that."

“No, no, no, you’re not dying on me, my dear, you don’t get to do that.”

Aren smiled up at him weakly, a small trickle of blood running from her mouth, unable to choke it down anymore. “We knew this was going to happen, ma vhenan. It was a matter of time.” 

“Yes, well, you’re still not allowed to die on me.”

She’d tried for years to find a way to cure the taint in her blood, Avernus sending research as frequently as he could, but in the end, the Blight took her first. Nearly thirty-five years a Warden, she had become pallid, the blackness of the taint lighting up her veins as the disease spread in her system. She’d begun losing hair about a year ago, and knew then her time was running out, and doing so quickly. 

“Zevran, can you help me sit up?” He quickly put his arm around her shoulder, fully supporting her as another coughing fit came over her, blood landing on the ground in front of them. He wrapped himself around her, as if he could will her body to reject the taint and heal, even knowing there was no answer for the questions they had. “I’m sorry you have to see this.”

“What, you think I would leave you alone to suffer this? Nonsense, cara mia. Nonsense.” His voice choked a little as he spoke, murmuring things in Antivan into her hair, trying to calm both of them down. Her panic stemmed from the pain of the Blight overtaking her body; his from the fact he could do nothing to save the woman he fell in love with. 

“It wasn’t supposed to happen like - like this,” she coughed. “I should’ve gone to the Deep Roads, I should have fought, I’ve heard my Calling for years now, but I - I couldn’t go back there.” She gripped his arm around her waist tightly, looking up at him, green eyes shining with fever and fear. “I can’t, Zevran, please don’t let them make me go there.”

“I’ll never let them take you,” he said, voice hard. “No one is going to take you from me.”

“And - Zevran, please, don’t let this weigh you down. Promise me you’re going to get old and grey and become an Antivan prune.”

“A prune?” he forced laughter. Leave it to her to bring humor into death. “I will never wrinkle so much as to become a prune, Aren.” 

“Promise me, Zevran. Don’t do another suicide mission. Please. I can’t - please.”

Zevran didn’t want to answer her. They’d become the center of each other’s worlds, even though their duties had forced them to part in the past more often than they’d liked, they’d spent the last fifteen years refusing to let it happen ever again. And now, death would force her to leave him one last time. “Aren…”

“Zevran, please. I’m begging you.” 

He gripped her tighter. “I will do my best. I promise nothing else.”

She sighed. “That’s all I can ask for, Zev, that’s all I’ve ever asked for.”

Things became quiet for a while after that, the only sounds remaining were Aren’s coughing fits and Zevran humming. It took about two hours for her breath to finally slow, and eventually come to a halt. Zevran noticed immediately.

“Aren?” he whispered in disbelief. The mage’s head rested comfortably against his chest, green eyes shut and expression peaceful. The only sign she’d been suffering was the line of blood from her mouth. 

He did not know his mother to grieve for her, but he grieved for the idea of her. His grief and guilt over Rinna drove him into taking on a contract against his Warden, the woman who saved his life and brought everything back into it again.

She was gone, now, and the world was that much darker because of it. He cradled her body, refusing to have to bury her just yet, and let grief wash over him. 


End file.
